Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 23. Vajra Dog (1)

At the sight of the town in the distance, I took repeated deep breaths to catch my breath.

“Hoo. Finally arrived.”

That place was Shaoyang, where the Steel Sinew Sect was based.

As soon as I spotted my destination, a heavy fatigue weighed down my entire body.

It was thanks to having set out from dawn as always, moving while repeating my training.

On the way, I sheathed the sword I had taken after slaughtering some heretic bastards I had happened to encounter, and entered the town.

I walked leisurely, filling my empty dantian from training by circulating the Jade Cloud Divine Art.

After wandering around Shaoyang for a while like a country bumpkin visiting a city for the first time, or like a beggar looking around for a place to ask for alms.

I found an inn and entered it.

Thanks to the strenuous training, my stomach felt like it was sticking to my back. I didn't know the exact location of the Steel Sinew Sect anyway, so I planned to get some information here while having a meal.

As soon as I entered the inn, a strange sight came into view.

Munch, munch. Slurp, slurp.

It was the sight of a burly man, who seemed to be about my eye level even while sitting in a chair, inhaling food as if possessed.

“Mithress! Thwee mowr bolls, pwease!”

As the man shouted, spraying food from his mouth, a middle-aged woman's reply was heard from inside the inn.

“I knew you'd say that, so I made some in advance!”

As the woman came out carrying three plates full of food on a tray, the man who was slaughtering the food smiled brightly.

“Hehehehet. Thank you.”

The man buried his face in the food again and began to inhale it.

As I was staring blankly at the scene, the woman who had served the food to the man approached me.

“Hohoho. I was also surprised when I first saw him.”

It seemed she thought I was surprised by the man's gluttony.

Actually, I was observing the man for a different reason, but I didn't feel the need to correct the misunderstanding, so I nodded.

“Is it possible to have a meal?”

“Yes. Please sit at any empty seat you like.”

As usual, I ordered some boiled meat. For a while, I watched the burly man inhale his food.

“Hehehehet. Mithress, your fwood is the, the besht!”

The man, who had finally demolished the new plates of food, gave a thumbs-up.

His build is definitely as the rumors say... While I was thinking that, the woman laughed at the man's compliment and replied.

“Is that why you only come to our place every day?”

“Yes!!! Hehehet.”

If that guy was who I thought he was, it didn't make sense for him to be chatting so amicably with a resident here.

Vajra Dog Nam Seup.

One of the most skilled masters in the Steel Sinew Sect, along with the sect leader and the Green Valley Worm.

It was an alias given to him because of his tremendous physique, befitting the name Vajra, and his cruel nature of doing whatever the Steel Sinew Sect leader ordered.

Although I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, there were widespread rumors that he had torn apart the body of a sect leader who had opposed the Steel Sinew Sect with his bare hands.

Because of his monstrous strength and cruel nature of tearing people apart with his bare hands, some even called him the Vajra Ferocious Bear instead of the Vajra Dog.

“Haa. How does that look like a hunting dog in any way?”

No matter how I looked at it, that naive-looking attitude and the rumors of the Vajra Dog didn't match at all.

Just then, the guy who was chatting idly with the woman looked at me with his round eyes.

“Ma'am! That big brother is talking to himself. H-he seems like a strange person.”

“Hush! You shouldn't say such things carelessly.”

Watching him, a sigh naturally escaped my lips.

“A guy like that commits murder?”

This time, the burly young man said in surprise.

“I-I didn't kill anyone. M-murder is a bad thing!”

“…”

My mind, which had been clear with the sole determination to kill bastards worse than trash, felt muddled.

Just as I was contemplating whether I should simply ask for his name, I felt a presence at the entrance of the inn.

When I turned my head, a few guys who looked like thugs were standing there.

“Seup! How long are you going to just eat!”

“The Leader is looking for you!”

The naive-looking fellow hastily stood up.

As he stood up, I could clearly see how big his frame was.

He was well over six feet tall, maybe even six and a half, and his muscular build looked like it was about to burst out of his clothes.

“Hing… I don't want to train…”

As the fellow muttered with a dejected attitude that didn't match his physique, one of the thugs shouted.

“Ahem. Do you intend to disappoint the Leader!”

“N-no. Big brother.”

The fellow left the inn with a mournful expression and departed with the thugs.

He had eaten so much, yet he left without paying for the food.

Following that, a middle-aged man appeared from inside the inn.

“Damn those bastards.”

It seemed he was the husband of the woman who had been talking with the man earlier.

“You're one to talk. Why do you keep giving food to that stupid guy? Giving it away! When we don't get a single penny!”

“He's pitiful. How did such a nice kid end up living with guys like that.”

“Hush! They're all the same, what are you talking about.”

After listening to the couple's conversation for a while, I calmly opened my mouth.

“May I ask you something?”

“Ah. I'm sorry. The meat is boiling, it will be out soon.”

As the middle-aged man bowed his head and said so, I shook my head and asked.

“Not about the meat, but do you happen to know anything about that man named Seup who just left?”

The mention of the leader and the name Seup. It really seemed that the guy from before was the Vajra Dog.

The only problem was that no matter how I thought about it, he seemed far from the ferocious nature I knew.

***

A large estate located on one side of Shaoyang.

From that estate, which had a plaque that read Steel Sinew Sect, the sound of metal clashing rang out continuously.

It was a sound like a blacksmith repeatedly striking heated iron with a sledgehammer, a sound one might hear from a forge.

At the source of the sound stood the young man who had encountered Jin Yuseong earlier, and opposite him stood a woman who appeared to be in her late thirties.

In the woman's hand was a large sledgehammer.

It was a strange shape to be a hammer for making swords. The surface of the hammer was covered with protruding iron bumps, making it unsuitable for evening out anything.

The woman swung the hammer at the young man with all her might, even circulating her internal energy, and when the sledgehammer and the young man's body collided, a loud metallic sound echoed.

Clang!!

As the young man, who had been struck by the sledgehammer, crouched down, the woman said with a venomous expression.

“Get up again.”

“M-Mom. I-it hurts too much.”

“For the sake of this mother who took care of you, you can't even endure this much!”

At the woman's sharp shout, the young man stood up with a mournful expression.

Then the woman swung the sledgehammer again, imbuing it with internal energy.

Clang!!

Clang!!!

The woman struck the young man's body all over several times.

Eventually, the burly young man couldn't bear it anymore and collapsed again.

“Do you want to be abandoned on the streets again like before!”

“N-no. Mom.”

At the woman's shout, the young man was startled and stood up.

Was it because of the repeated assaults? The clothes the young man was wearing were torn and had holes in them.

Through the holes, places where the skin was torn and bleeding were visible, and the places where he was first hit were already turning black and blue.

But the woman, as if the young man's wounds were of no concern to her, just swung the sledgehammer with a venomous expression.

Clang!!

The woman swung the sledgehammer at the young man several dozen more times.

After striking every nook and cranny of the young man's body with the sledgehammer without missing a single spot, the woman put down the hammer and hugged the young man who was sprawled on the floor.

A gentle smile had appeared on the woman's face.

“You did well, my son. For this mother, you endured it well until the end.”

“Hehet. F-for Mom, I c-can endure it. S-so please d-don't abandon me, M-mom.”

“Of course. How could I abandon such an obedient son? As long as you listen to this mother's words, you will never be abandoned like before.”

“Yes! I-I will listen to Mom!”

“Good boy, my son.”

The woman, with a gentle smile again, stroked the young man's head and stood up.

“You must be very tired, so go wash up and go to sleep now.”

As if her business was done, the woman turned her back and headed somewhere.

Her face had already changed back to a venomous expression.

The woman entered a place with a plaque that read Leader’s Hall.

And a short while later, a fierce-looking man entered the Leader’s Hall.

“Greetings to the Leader.”

As the man performed a clasped hands greeting and paid his respects to the woman, the woman nodded with a still venomous expression.

“Tomorrow, pick a few of the kids and go with Seup to the Five Sword Sect.”

“The Five Sword Sect? Wouldn't it be a bit dangerous to attack them with just a few kids, without the Leader?”

“That's why I told you to take Seup. As he is now, he should be able to handle the Five Sword Sect by himself.”

“His strength is one thing, but will that stupid fellow be able to do it properly?”

Despite him criticizing her son as stupid, the woman didn't seem particularly offended.

It was only natural. Nam Seup was not her biological son in the first place.

About twenty years ago, she had obtained several martial arts manuals.

She had wanted to learn all the manuals she obtained at that time, but there was one, the Iron Blood Golden Skin Art, that she could not learn.

It was a fearsome external energy manual that was said to allow one to achieve a Vajra Indestructible Body if mastered, but unfortunately, it was an external art that was impossible to learn unless one was a man of sturdy build.

Just in case, she conducted a few experiments.

She kidnapped a young man and forcibly taught him the Iron Blood Golden Skin Art.

After making him memorize the incantations, she tied him up with ropes and repeated training that was close to torture.

Every time, the kidnapped men would either go mad within a month or bite their tongues and commit suicide.

That was how painful the process of learning the Iron Blood Golden Skin Art was.

Eventually, when she had half given up on the Iron Blood Golden Skin Art, she happened to find an orphan sitting on the street.

A child with a sturdy body that could be said to be blessed for a martial artist, and an endlessly foolish-looking mind.

The woman who found the orphan couldn't help but let out a cheer.

“The heavens have not abandoned me!”

She thought that if she could just coax that naive child well, she could train him in the Iron Blood Golden Skin Art and use him for her revenge.

Her prediction was correct.

The child soon began to follow her, calling her ‘Mom! Mom!’

He would even endure the painful training process that made grown men go mad or choose suicide with a smile, just for a few words of praise from her.

While the Steel Sinew Sect leader was reminiscing about her first meeting with Nam Seup, the man who had come to the Leader's Hall cautiously asked her.

“Instead of that fellow Seup, if the Leader were to go with us…”

But the man's question was not finished.

It was because the leader was glaring at him as if to kill him.

“Why do you keep making me repeat myself? This leader will stay here and guard this place, so you take Seup and go to the Five Sword Sect.”

“I-I will follow the Leader's command.”

Soon after the man who had hastily performed a clasped hands greeting left, the woman raised her left hand and bit her nails.

A deep sense of anxiety was now layered over one side of her venomous expression.

‘I've been based here for too long.’

The owner of the martial arts manuals she had obtained. The enemy she had to take revenge on.

The bastard might be looking for her. Such anxiety kept creeping up on her.

For a while, she had been relieving that anxiety by assaulting Nam Seup under the pretext of training, but now the anxiety had grown so large that it wouldn't go away easily.

That was also the reason why she suddenly ordered the attack on the Five Sword Sect.

So that even if that bastard found her, he wouldn't be able to kill her. And further, to raise a force to take revenge on that bastard as quickly as possible.

In addition to that.

“So, Seup. For this mother, please kill them all.”

To teach the loyal dog she had raised with the most care how to bite people now.